This invention relates to a paper cartridge which is a part of a paper transporting passageway formed inside an apparatus such as a copier and with which sheets of transported paper can be properly arranged and stored.
Inside an apparatus such as a copier which processes sheets of paper, rollers and guide members are provided to form a paper transporting passageway through which sheets of paper are sequentially transported from a supply section to a processing section and then to a discharge section. Such apparatus are usually adapted to transport many sheets of paper continuously and it is desirable to reduce the intervals between successive processing operations and to thereby improve the work efficiency. On the other hand, sheets of paper to be transported to the processing section must be positioned correctly all the time such that the operations at the processing section can be carried out properly. For this purpose, the positions of paper both in the direction of transportation and the perpendicular direction must be considered. In other words, each sheet of transported paper must be properly positioned regarding these two directions.
In conventional apparatus provided with a paper transporting passageway, positioning of paper in the direction of transportation is usually carried out by synchronizing the action timing of the processing section with the timing with which paper is transported. As for the perpendicular direction, regulating plates are usually provided to the storage table in the paper supply section such that the two parallel edges of the transported paper in the direction of transportation are defined and the sides of the supplied sheets will touch these two parallel plates. Such regulating plates are generally adapted to be operated manually but there have been apparatus such as a copier for making copies on both sides of sheets, having an intermediate tray which can be operated by a motor or the like according to the detected size of the transported sheet of paper.
If such regulating plates must be moved manually according to the size of the stored paper, the preparatory work for the operation becomes inconveniently complicated. If a motor or the like is used to move the regulating plates, only sheets of standard sizes such as A4 and B5 could be effectively handled and sheets of non-standard sizes could not be properly arranged.